The Octopus’ Garden

For years, since the late 1990s, I’ve always had Linux on my desktop and laptops. It was both a choice and a necessity for me because I found it more apt for what I did for a living, i.e., development and systems administration. My whole life revolved around Linux because it allowed me to have both a sandbox and a stable platform to work on that I can actually bring with me anywhere. I only started using Windows XP circa 2003 (occassionally only and on my home pc) when I began to take my photography seriously because of premature color-management support in Linux and GIMP. But for work, it has always been Linux. That stood true until I found myself with a new job (old job?) with Wolfpac Mobile which allowed me to, yes, switch to MacOS, guilt-free!

Since this new job is a bit higher-level, my dependencies on Linux is now almost moot, although I still keep a bare Linux VM in Parallels to do some toying around. But for most stuff, I’m comfortable enough working with the Mac’s BSD core. While I’ve only been using my black and sexy MacBook for four months, my affair with the Mac started way before then. It’s just that I have also successfully convinced myself to look the other way each time a temptation turns up. Four months ago, I finally gave in. I hope I can say to all anti-Macs that it was a roller-coaster ride, and I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I’m on cruise-control with my WaffleMaker IV right now. However, it didn’t take me long to exhaust the stock 512mb, especially, with the way I multitask. But an upgrade to 2G made it all good that I had to wear a seatbelt when opening apps and documents!

Anyway, I still can’t decide really on where to start my story. So until I find a more comprehensive outline on what to write about my experience so far, I strongly recommend you give my friend, Ben Canlas, a chance and read about his experiences as an equally fresh Mac Switcher. He just beat me by about two weeks!

Related: A List of some MacOS Goodies